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Friday, February 28, 2014

Students, please find below an example of the kind of textual analysis discussed here. Please note that, when formatted for submission (as the present version is not, owing to the medium), it is most of four pages in length, comfortably within the assigned length for your own submission.
On 17 December 2013, the editors of the New York Times published "Why Other Countries Teach Better." In the article, the authors assert that the United States needs to adopt some of the teaching methods employed in other countries if the deficiencies of its workers' reasoning skills are to remain competitive against those of workers in other places. Pedagogical practices in Finland, Canada, and Shanghai are offered as the primary examples; Finland's emphasis on teacher training and retention, Canada's on equality of school funding, and Shanghai's on intra-cultural integration are presented as both singularly effective and markedly different from practices in the United States. Each country is also portrayed as performing better than the United States in terms of teaching its children. Such portrayals speak to an expectation on the part of the editors that their readers are going to be relatively politically liberal and comparatively Western-centric. Indications thereof are in the nature of the publication itself, the consistent depictions of motions toward egalitarianism, and the examples selected for support of the article's central argument.

That the New York Times aims at a relatively liberal readership is to be expected. As the major newspaper of New York City, the Times can be expected to reflect or directly address the needs and understandings of the populace of New York City--and that population is generally considered liberal, as determined by voting patterns and prevalence of social programs. The US House of Representatives reports in its directory that all but one of the representatives sent to Congress from the many Congressional districts of New York City is Democrat, and the Democratic Party is strongly associated with liberal politics. That New York is represented by Democrats, then, marks it as liberal, as does the prevalence of public services available. Extensive public library systems, public transit, and housing assistance typify New York City, and the city supports an independent system of colleges through the City University of New York. Each contributes to a massive network of public services available, and that network bespeaks the overall liberal tenor of the Big Apple. The New York Times will, as what is still at some level a local newspaper, respond to the perceived needs of the identifiably liberal populace, making it more likely to be itself liberal.

Similarly, it is to be expected that the Times will aim at a Western-centered readership. New York City is often figured as a distillation of the United States, particularly since it is regarded as the major point of entry for many of the people who immigrated to the United States from Western Europe. It is, in effect, the epicenter of Americanness, and the United States is typically viewed (by itself and others) as the pivotal Western country. New York City thus becomes among the most Western of Western places, and its local newspaper will necessarily respond thereto. Also, the major language of publication of the newspaper is English, a West Germanic language (Baugh and Cable 33-34); even in its primary tongue, the paper speaks to a Western audience.

It is not only in the inherent features of the publication that the article indicates its intended audience; it also addresses a liberal readership in its consistent motions towards the egalitarian in its discussion. One of the underpinnings of liberal political thought is that people deserve to be given equal opportunity, by which is meant beginning on an equal footing. This tends to imply that explicit measures need to be taken to address systematic inequalities, which is to say that civil programs should tend towards the egalitarian. The article points out social structures in its examples that function in such a way. Finland, for example, is shown as providing non means-tested services to students, meaning that need is not a feature in determining what students receive; it is also emphasized that its educational system was set up to "provide a quality, high-level education for poor and wealthy alike." Similarly, the point is made that "Finnish teachers are not drawn to the profession by the money; they earn only slightly more than the national average salary," which presents a normalizing idea consistent with egalitarian ideas. A like point is made with Canada in the note that "Americans tend to see such inequalities as the natural order of things. Canadians do not," and another is made in commenting that Shanghai "has mainly moved away from an elitist system." Each tends to the idea of better schooling coming from the egalitarian, and so each seems pitched to speak to liberal readers.

The egalitarianism is also framed in terms likely to appeal to Western readers. For example, Canada is used as almost a byword for egalitarian practices in the United States--already identified as a major pivot of the Western world. Its egalitarianism, then, is particularly accessible to that most Western of audiences, and its depiction in the New York Times thus bespeaks an expectation that the audience of the article will derive mostly from the Western world. Similarly, the egalitarianism in Shanghai is framed largely in terms of including the children of migrant workers, putting it into terms likely to resonate with the prototypically Western readers in New York City, a city that makes much of its immigrant history, and of the rest of the United States, which grapples with the idea of migrant workers and their children.

The authors' examples seem calculated to speak directly to liberal readers. Finland is frequently held up as a model of centralized governmental control. The egalitarianism that is typically linked to Canada is linked to it by way of liberal policies; it is typically framed in terms of government programs that are at odds with prevailing conservative ideas of appropriate civil structures. Shanghai, as part of China, is linked with communist doctrine, and communism is seen as the excess of liberalism. That the examples are used indicates that the authors believe they will be received well by the audience; the authors have to expect that the readers will react well to them. That they are expected to react well suggests that the assumed readership is fundamentally liberal in orientation.

The choice of examples from which to make the argument indicates also the expectation that the readers of the article will be Western. Finland, as a Nordic country, is decidedly Western. Canada, as part of the British Commonwealth, is, as well. Shanghai might appear to be the outlying example, but Kerrie L. MacPherson of the University of Hong Kong calls it "China's historically most capitalist place" (37), and capitalism is the defining philosophy of the modern Western world. As such, it joins Finland and Canada in being familiar to Western readers, its invocation a means for the authors to address a Western readership.

That biases towards the Western liberal can be detected in "Why Other Countries Teach Better" does not mean that the article does not do well to raise several points; educational excellence should be a concern of the people of the United States, and it is not yet sufficiently in place (if it ever can be). What the detectable biases do oblige, however, is careful consideration; while bias is inevitable, it must be known to be accounted for, and it must be accounted for if the works within which it is present are to be used ethically and responsibly. Such use does much to allow for greater understanding among divergent ideologies; each has something to offer, but that offer can only be known if the source can be acknowledged, and sifting through bias is necessary for that acknowledgement to occur.

I have been summoned for jury duty and am obliged to report to the local county courthouse on the morning of 3 March 2014. Consequently, I will be unable to meet with my classes or hold office hours that day. Classes are being covered by other OSU English personnel, and assignments are already made; student attendance remains expected.

If my jury duty is extended past the current 3 March 2014, I will make every effort to announce it. I will also coordinate with the Department of English to ensure instructional time is covered and the necessary materials are offered to the students.

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the last class meeting. Fourteen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the last class meeting. Fourteen attended.

Discussion opened with an announcement regarding 3 March before moving into cavassing student opinions regarding the profile papers due before class began. From there, discussion moved to announcement and beginning structures for the upcoming textual analysis.

Discussion ended early to allow for student evaluations. Attendance was assessed informally.

Class discussion opened with an announcement regarding 3 March 2014; there is class (unless school is closed), and an opportunity to study for the final exam will be offered. It proceeded therefrom to treat the contexts and histories of the early modern period in England.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the previous class meeting. Fourteen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the previous class meeting. Fifteen attended.

Both classes began with announcements of upcoming events hosted by the OSU English Department. It continued with a final address of student questions and concerns regarding the profile, which is due before the beginning of class on Friday. Among the discussion were several side-discussions of various grammatical principles and points of usage.

Attendance in both classes was assessed informally. Students in both classes were advised to begin preliminary work on the upcoming textual analysis. (Formal assignment information is under development.)

Discussion asked after student progress on annotated bibliographies before moving into discussion of Malory. Mention was made of the end of the Middle English period and the beginning of the early modern, noting the uncertainty of the division in both linguistic and political terms. The perfidy of Lancelot and the sorrowful tone of Le Morte d'Arthur were also noted.

Attendance was assessed informally; discussion was such that there was not time for a quiz to take place. It is still looming, however; students are advised to keep abreast of reading and review previously assigned texts.

Class began as scheduled at 9:30am in Morrill Hall Room 202. The class roster listed seventeen students, one fewer than at the previous class meeting. Fifteen attended.

Formal discussion opened with comments about student grades on the recently returned abstract and the institution's six-week report. It moved from that to discussion of Malory and Le Morte d'Arthur. Students were asked to conduct most discussion of Le Morte d'Arthur as literature in the online discussions, leaving class time available for discussion of contexts and paratextual concerns.

Attendance was assessed via the kind of quiz from which the first section of the final exam will be taken. Students are encouraged to continue to attend closely to the details of readings and historical contexts.

I was unable to be in the clasroom or in my office hours on 19 February 2014 due to the birth of my daughter. She was not expected until the end of March, so the need to bring her into the world on the 19th was a surprise--albeit a markedly pleasant one. The rush to do so prevented more timely notice of the absence than signs posted to my office and classrooms.

Monday, February 17, 2014

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since last class meeting. Sixteen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since last class meeting. Fifteen attended.

Both classes opened with questions about student progress on profiles. Issues of scores on the peer-review draft were covered, as were issues of focus on dominant impressions in the profiles and methods for expanding upon them appropriately. Denotation and connotation were noted.

Both classes saw informal assessment of attendance. Students are exhorted to review the readings that have been assigned so far and to be diligently at work on the profiles, of which instructor review drafts are due on Friday.

Class began as scheduled at 9:30am in Morrill Hall Room 202. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged from last class meeting. Only thirteen attended.
Formal discussion opened with the distribution of hard copies of the grading rubric for the upcoming annotated bibliography. Requirements for the assignment were reviewed and questions about them answered. Students were exhorted to begin work on the bibliographies early and to seek review of them often; the assignment is not one which rewards procrastination.

Discussion moved on to the historical and personal contexts of Geoffrey Chaucer. Extensive reference was made to the Riverside Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson. The General Prologue was touched upon, with attention paid to the fit of character descriptions therein to the tales the characters tell along the way.

Attendance was assessed through an informal writing assignment. Students will be afforded opportunities to improve their grades later in the week; attention to the details of the readings is encouraged.

Friday, February 14, 2014

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged from last class meeting. Seventeen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged from last class meeting. Fifteen attended.

Both classes opened with questions about student concerns about the profiles, of which drafts were due for in-class peer review. Following questions, the classes broke up into peer review groups, with which the rest of class time was concerned.

Attendance was taken via quiz grades on the presence and general quality of drafts in class. Students are exhorted to continue to work to improve upon their profiles, of which drafts are due for instructor review next Friday, 21 February 2014.

Class began as scheduled at 9:30am in Morrill Hall Room 202. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the last class meeting. Eleven attended; they were joined by Prof. Linda Austin, who was present to observe instruction.

Discussion began with questions over the abstracts which were to have been submitted. Mention was made that formal discussion of the annotated bibliography, the next stage of the research project, will begin on Monday, 17 February 2014; materials in support of it are in draft as of this writing. From there, discussion moved on to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and student impressions thereof. Students were reminded to catch up on the readings assigned.

Attendance was assessed visually. Students are exhorted to participate more fully in class; discussion is better when driven by the student.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled in Classroom Building Room 108. Nineteen students were listed on the class roster, unchanged from last class meeting. Seventeen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled in Classroom Building Room 122. Nineteen students were listed on the class roster, unchanged from last class meeting. Sixteen attended.

Discussion asked after progress on profiles, drafts of which are due in class for peer review on Friday. After speaking thereof, the class turned to talk of the Babcock and Laschever piece in the textbook chapter on reports (reading recommended for the profile paper by the English department).

Attendance in both classes was assessed informally. Students are reminded to have drafts ready to go Friday and to keep up with other readings.

Class discussion began a few minutes before the formal opening of class time. Students were asked after their progress on the research paper abstract, which is due before the beginning of class time on Friday. A number of questions were raised and answered; students reported being satisfied with the answers provided.

Discussion moved from there into discussion of Monday's quiz and backgrounds of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The latter included the manuscript context and major tropes such as humilitas and the heraldic blazon. The possibility of reading SGGK as satire of the chivalric was raised--helpfully.

Attendance was assessed informally; fourteen students of the nineteen listed on the class roster attended. Students are encouraged to continue reading and to work diligently to finalize their abstracts (late penalties will apply to late submissions, per syllabus policy).

Monday, February 10, 2014

Class began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since last class meeting. Sixteen attended.

Discussion opened with questions about student progress and understanding of the profile assignment, of which a draft is due in class for peer review on Friday. It then moved into treatment of the Baker selection in the Profiles chapter of the course textbook.

Attendance was taken via a riddle quiz. Students are reminded to remain abreast of readings.

Class began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged from last class meeting. Eighteen attended.

Discussion asked after student progress on profiles and discussed student questions about the profile assignment before treating the Baker piece in the Profiles chapter of the course textbook. Students are encouraged to follow the models made available to them in the text and in supplemental materials.

Attendance was taken by a riddle quiz. Students are advised to keep up with the assigned work.

Class began as scheduled at 9:30am in Morrill Hall Room 202. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the last class meeting. Fifteen attended.

Discussion opened with questions about the research paper abstract (which is due via D2L before the beginning of class on Friday). It then moved into discussion primarily of the Hundred Years War, integrating information gleaned from Nigel Saul; he is recommended to students as a useful resource.

Attendance was taken through another quiz from which questions in the first section of the summative exam will derive. Students are exhorted to continue to read and to be diligently at work on their research projects.

Friday, February 7, 2014

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since last class meeting. Seventeen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since last class meeting. Sixteen attended.

In both, discussion asked after student impressions of the literacy narrative that was to have been submitted. (ENGL 1113.007 had total on-time submission, which is a rare and happy occurrence.) From there, discussion moved to cover the newly-assigned profile, of which drafts are due on the next three successive Fridays.

Discussion Monday is slated to focus on the Baker profile in the course textbook. Noted also was the impending return of riddle exercises.

Class began as scheduled at 9:30am in Morrill Hall Room 202. The class roster listed nineteen students, one fewer than at the last class meeting. Twelve attended.

Discussion covered the lyrics selected in the course textbook. Focus was on the manner in which the lyrics display continuity of interest from the medieval period through the contemporary. Sources for a number of puns were mentioned.

Attendance was assessed via an informal writing exercise. Students were reminded that the abstract for the research paper is due before the beginning of class on 14 February 2014. Students were also informed that more opportunities to preview questions for the summative exam are forthcoming.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Below is an example of a profile of the kind requested from my students in ENGL 1113 at Oklahoma State University. When formatted for submission (as the current medium prohibits), it is approximately four and one-third pages, comfortably within the required assignment length.

I have had office space more or less continually since I began graduate school in 2005. Sometimes, I have been lucky enough not to have to share it; there is a certain comfort in having a bit of private space at work, a place to which to retreat from the demands of the workplace and attend to the actual job rather than political concerns and the din of hallway and classroom. More often, though, I have shared my office space with others. Such situations present challenges, certainly; the typical work of the scholar in the humanities is one which rewards and is aided by isolation and quiet, which shared office space tends to preclude. But they also offer much enrichment through the very things that keep them from being optimal spaces for focused scholarly pursuits; my current office in room 411 of Morrill Hall has not failed in it.

I have given it every opportunity to show its quality to me (as has been the case with every office I have had). My office hours are as they are and as they are required to be, but I spend much time in Morrill 411 outside of those hours. On many teaching days, I stay in or near the office until six in the evening, grading papers, reading ahead, and writing (whether for my students or for myself depends on the day, what is due for them, and what is due for me). It is not unheard-of for me to come in on days I do not teach, as well, including the odd Saturday or Sunday. Many hours spent in the office across many days breeds much familiarity with it.

It is from intimate knowledge, then, that I can say the room hardly bespeaks the professorial dignity. Tucked up under the slanting roof of the old building, Morrill 411 is a bland, yellowish thing in both floor and walls, and the fluorescent light the bland tiling and uninspired paint job reflect to the ceiling's acoustic tiles hues them similarly. Only some of the furnishings (solid desks with colorful chairs, steel bookcases and two of wood, the occasional wall hanging in bright plumage or patterned purple) alleviate the dreary palette--along with the sky-painted support column that confronts those who walk through the poorly-braced door and obscures sight of the hallway from several of the room's assigned occupants. The bookcases themselves are filled more with the work of students long since gone and textbooks considered and rejected than with scholarly apparatus, the journals and books with which the members of the professoriate prepare themselves for their teaching duties and carry out the investigation of new thoughts and ideas. It hardly fits the traditional image of the distinguished, tweed-clad knowledge-seeker, sitting quietly and contentedly in a wood-paneled room surrounded by books and steadily pushing back the boundaries of human understanding.

Yet there are excellent things about the office's physicality. For one, it is well ventilated; a large vent and a return register are both present, so that the air in the office is always moving, conveying a sense of freshness and the sense somehow that the building yet lives because it breathes. Too, it is positioned well. The eastern stair of the building--which is that nearest to the restrooms on the third and second floors--is nearby and so easily accessible, yet not so nearby that the sounds of those using the stairs resound in the room. The lone and agonizingly slow elevator in the building is similarly close, facilitating use but suppressing the experience of the noise. A janitorial closet is not far off, offering access to cleaning supplies and to better custodial care. And the fourth-floor lounge, in which are a printer, a refrigerator, and a microwave, is directly across the hall, so that it is a short walk for the occupants of Morrill 411 to produce papers or prepare the scanty meals that many take throughout the day.

Even the drabness of the room helps Morrill 411 to offer benefits to its occupants. The lack of interest of floor, walls, and ceiling forces attention to be paid to other things than the mere physical surroundings (and it can serve as a calming anesthetic for those whose minds occasionally need such things). The lack of scholarly apparatus promotes instead a focus on collegiality; in the idle moments between classes, when grading is done but not enough time remains to head out for a meal or a drink before the next class begins or the next staff meeting, there are colleagues present and similarly waiting. It offers the opportunity for intense, far-ranging conversations in which teaching styles and techniques are discussed and exchanged, and ideas for new research (to be conducted at other sites, usually) are batted about in the attempt to ascertain if they are worth pursuing and in what ways. More involved decor on the walls would compel attention on its own, and that attention would detract somewhat from the ability of the occupants to focus on what the others are doing. It would call attention to itself and thereby call it away from the interchange of ideas that serves to make an increasingly cohesive group from the assigned occupants of Morrill 411.

The sense of community is not only fostered by the drabness of the room demanding other outlets for the occupants' thoughts and deeds. The openness of layout also adds to the sense of connectedness. Many of the desks face one another, and no partitions separate even those which face away. A human face is therefore nearly always within a turn of the head, so a human connection is nearly always within reach in Morrill 411. That connection is often the opportunity to watch colleagues at work; those assigned to the office are frequently present while others confer with students, so that they are able to see student engagement techniques in the moment of application and to discuss them shortly thereafter. The immediacy of the demonstrations helps to improve the teaching for which the occupants are paid as they are and breeds a common body of practice among them, with all adding their best to the others' repertoires. And even in the absence of others, the sure knowledge of the presence of others is available in the room. Chairs not pushed in bespeak people having left in haste, and the occasional dish or cup left on the desk shows that living people have been in the place. Even the choices of books that some leave on display on their desks bespeak them, so that if they are not themselves present, the shape of their presence can easily be seen. A more restricted environment such as individual offices or the corporate cubicle farm would prohibit such things or would at least impede them; the openness of Morrill 411 almost demands of its occupants engagement with others, serving as a corrective to the hermit-impulse to which those who engage in humanistic study are too often prone.

Part of a sense of community is the impression that its members protect one another, and Morrill 411 lends itself to that protection. Its location, so convenient to both stairwell and elevator, makes it likely that others will happen by the office at odd moments, and the near-certainty that someone else will be present and therefore a potential witness serves as a deterrent to bad behavior for professors and students. It is also next to the office of a program director, a figure of authority in the department to whom questions can be easily posed and whose agency can be readily invoked because of the proximity. Similarly, the possible presence of any or all of the other assigned occupants of the office at any given moment--for all who are assigned to Morrill 411 have keys to it and to the building itself--means that those who do occupy the office have easy access to people who know them and are inclined to vouch for them if the need should arise. Too, that access to others means that there are, in the worst case, other hands with which to fight. (That physical violence happen is not desired, certainly, but the possibility for it exists and must be taken into account therefore.)

Part of the sense of community Morrill 411 offers is that of history; the office and its occupants existed as a body before. The building itself is among the oldest at Oklahoma State University; its cornerstone notes it as being built in the first decade of the twentieth century. It is therefore among the fixtures of the campus, presiding over many generations of students. It also connects Oklahoma State University to some of the noblest traditions of public service, for it is named after the man whose efforts allowed such land-grant institutions as Oklahoma State University to be; the building and its inhabitants are therefore made akin to the greater public academy, to the enrichment of all. And the office itself bears the marks of its former inhabitants; nails protrude from where earlier occupants drove them in to hang things, the bookcases in place still carry the loads earlier occupants placed upon them, and some of those occupants have themselves been in place for many years. To sit in Morrill 411, then, is to sit amid a living history; to be assigned to occupy it is to participate in and extend that history; and to participate in the history of a thing is to partake of its community.

Although I miss my former, private offices, and although I look forward to having one once again, I do not scorn the many things that the shared space of Morrill 411 offers me. At a minimum, it offers me a place where I can belong among the faculty of the institution, and having a place is a comfort, indeed.

For ENGL 1113.006
Class began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged since the last class meeting. Seventeen attended.

For ENGL 1113.007
Class began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanges since the last class meeting. Sixteen attended.

For Both Classes
Discussion opened with questions about student work on the literacy narrative, the final draft of which is due as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file before the beginning of class on Friday. It moved from that to general discussions of punctuation and some points of usage.

Students were reminded to continue their readings, as discussion of the next paper, the profile, will begin promptly on Friday.

Discussion opened with questions after student work on the research paper, the abstract of which is due on Valentine's Day. Afterwards, the answers to Monday's quiz and a reminder that the first section of the summative exam will be taken from the quizzes given throughout the term were offered. Discussion continued with comments about the medieval romance and the Breton lai before moving into specific discussion of Marie de France and her works. Attendance was taken via an overly brief informal writing exercise.

Students are reminded to keep abreast of the assigned readings and discussion board postings as well as their ongoing research projects.

Monday, February 3, 2014

ENGL 1113.006 began as scheduled at 11:30am in Classroom Building Room 108. The class roster listed ninteen students, unchanged from last class meeting. Seventeen attended.

ENGL 1113.007 began as scheduled at 12:30pm in Classroom Building Room 122. The class roster listed nineteen students, unchanged from last class meeting. Sixteen attended.

In both classes, discussion began with comments about the literacy narrative, the final draft of which is due Friday, before moving into discussions of frequent comma usage errors. Attendance in both classes was assessed via a riddle exercise that is being counted as a minor assignment grade.

Students are urged to review the readings previously assigned and to be diligent in revision and proofreading of their narratives.

Class began as scheduled at 9:30am in Morrill Hall Room 202. The class roster listed twenty students, unchanged since the last class meeting. Thirteen attended.

Discussion covered Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum britanniae in brief. Noted especially were the concept of auctoritas in the medieval mindset and the mystical worldview that made it possible to accept what is presently deemed otherworldly as sober fact.

Attendance was taken through another identifications quiz (on the model of that offered on 29 January 2014). More such assessments will be forthcoming in anticipation of the summative exam at the end of the term.